Immuno-Psychiatry: Facts and Prospects [Paperback]

This book presents a thorough and critical review of current knowledge on the role of immunology in major psychiatric disorders and its potential applications. The opening chapters offer general information on the immune influence of the brain to provide readers with a better understanding of the end of immune privilege. The book then examines possible underlying mechanisms leading to psychiatric disorders, from early infections to pro-inflammatory markers, stress, and immune genetic background, linking etiology and psychiatry. The third section describes each disorder (ie autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression&) with an overview of underlying immune dysfunctions. Lastly, the authors discuss the innovative immune-therapies that may result from the discovery of immune system biomarkers and their associated mechanisms. A better understanding of the role of the immune system in psychiatric disorders makes it possible to identify stratification biomarkers, to explain underlying mechanisms, and to develop innovative, efficient, targeted treatment strategies and management. As such, the book is of value to clinicians, mental health professionals, mental health researchers, immunologists, industry practitioners, and various stakeholders in the mental health field.

Foreword.- 1. Auto-immune disorders and infections as risk factors for mental disorders.- 2. The life-long consequences of prenatal and childhood stress on the innate and adaptive immune system.- 3. Immunity as a common risk pathway for psychiatric and medical comorbidity?.- 4. Brain imaging Measures of Immune Dysregulation in Psychiatry.- 5. Cytokines as biomarkers in psychiatric disorders: methodological issues.- 6. Pro-inflammatory cytokines and the depressive phenotype function.- 7. Role of the T Cell Network in Psychiatric Disorders.- 8. Microglia and psychiatric disorders.- 9. Human Endogenous Retrovirus as missing link in the global etiopathogenesis of schilƒ$